A thought experiment... Big Star's Third (aka, Alex Chilton's Sister Lovers) was recorded in 1974 but not released because of label disinterest (convinced of its lack of commercial appeal). Another label acquired the tapes and released it in 1978, without the involvement of either the band or producer. It picked the songs to include, of the many recorded, leaving some out, and the song order. Other "unofficial" versions would follow over the years with still different songs and song orders. Eventually, an "official" version was released in 1992, with the original producer's involvement, and supposedly Alex Chilton's approval, that is claimed to have captured the vision the band had had for the album, which the earlier releases had, to greater or lesser extents, failed to capture.

So... for those who insist PeW is an '80s album, is Big Star's Third, recorded in 1974, a '90s album, as it's first official release was 1992? Say the tapes had sat for another two years and the first unofficial release was 1980 instead of 1978; would that make it at earliest an '80s album by any logic?

Personally, I think the torturous history of Big Star's 3rd shows that the decade of an album has to be defined by that in which it was recorded, otherwise, you can be left with a ridiculous assertion that this Velvet Underground-inspired '70s masterpiece is a '90s album because that's when it was first officially released.

These are facts that settle the case, Permanent Waves is a 70’s album. Anybody suggesting something is else is a Permanent Waves Denier that shouldn’t be taken seriously.

So you are saying the science is settled?

On Permanent Waves? Yes.

I’m currently working on a theory that Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica was just a nightmare of Dirk Benedict’s Starbuck. While he was marooned on a desolate planet in the last episode of Galactica 1980.

I wonder when the episodes were written and filmed for Galactica 1980?

This thread may get resurrected for today, so I wanted to share this February 9, 1980 article from RPM Weekly Magazine (a former Canadian music magazine) re-posted on the Power Windows Tribute website below.

That's the first reference I've seen that puts the release date on the 14th. Maybe it was released on Jan. 1 in other markets and delayed two weeks in the US because of the trouble with the front cover?